In the present invention, a ‘mobile terminal’ means a terminal with which one can input/output diverse information in motion, such as a wireless communication terminal, an MPEG Audio Layer-3 (MP3) player and a Portable Multimedia Player (PMP).
In the present invention, a ‘wireless communication terminal’ means a terminal capable of wireless communication such as a mobile communication terminal, a personal communication system (PCS), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a smart phone, International Mobile Telecommunication 2000 (IMT-2000) and wireless local area network (LAN) terminal.
Recent increase in the use of small mobile terminals such as a wireless communication terminal makes it possible to use diverse services while communicating. The wireless communication terminal provides diverse additional services such as wireless Internet and multimedia data input/output in addition to a simple calling function. The services are expected to be more diversified and specialized based on user preferences of to satisfy user's demand.
In this circumstance, since menu manipulation still occupy the majority of methods for controlling mobile terminals, there is a problem that the user should go through several steps of inputting keys on the menu to use a desired service. In addition, the mobile terminal cannot be equipped with a pointing input device such as a mouse. Accordingly, there is a limit that the mobile terminal cannot easily control information of a specific location. It is possible to mount a touch pad to overcome the above problem. However, mounting the touch pad requires an expensive hardware and it is inconvenient for the user to carry the mobile terminal with the touch pad.
Meanwhile, an interface technology for controlling a system through voice recognition and motion of the pupil of the eyes has been diversely developed along with development of a living body recognition technology.
Korea Patent Publication No. 2003-0010279 (reference 1), which is published on Feb. 5, 2003, discloses a computer system supporting voice recognition and a method for controlling the same. It is a technology that a user can control the system through voice recognition in the system without a voice recognition function. According to the technology, a command inputted through voice recognition is transformed into a form of a key board input signal or a mouse input signal for executing a system operation mode corresponding to the command, and inputting the signal in the system. Accordingly, a general application program can be operated by voice even though it does not support a voice recognition function.
The reference 1 can provide the above function, only when information related to control of a general application program is acquired in advance. However, since the control information is generally dependant on the application program, there is a problem that the control information is not acquired easily.
Korea Patent Publication No. 2002-0082369 (reference 2), which is published on Oct. 31, 2002, discloses a menu selecting interface apparatus of a mobile communication terminal. The reference 2 introduces a technology where a motion of the pupil of the user eyes is sensed by using a camera mounted in a next-generation mobile communication terminal and a user select a menu by moving his/her pupils. The technology can realize a handsfree interface and raise availability of the terminal.
However, since the reference 2 tracks the pupil of the user by using the camera, there are spatial limitation that the user should come into sight of the camera, and an environmental limitation such as the presence and intensity of light. Also, since the motion of the pupil of the eyes is sequential, the pupil of the eyes should be moved a lot to input much information and it makes the user tired.